Village Rockstars

Dhunu is ten and lives in Kalardiya village in Lower Assam with her widowed mother and her elder brother. At a village event where she helps her mother sell snacks, she watches a band of boys play to a crowd on instruments made of styrofoam, and she copies them by carving a guitar of her own.

A comic book gives her a bigger idea: she wants a band that plays real instruments. She begins saving what she can, and a scrap of newspaper convinces her that thinking positively will somehow bring the guitar into her hands. Then the floods come and destroy the family's crops, and Dhunu has to weigh her dream against what her household needs to survive.

The film resists melodrama. Its drama sits in small decisions, in the rhythm of village chores and monsoon weather, and in a child's stubborn belief that a different life is possible.

Rima Das wrote, directed, produced, shot and edited the film herself. She worked without a crew, using a single Canon 5D camera and one lens that she paid for by selling gold jewellery and taking a loan, with help from her cousin Mallika Das. Everything was filmed in her home village of Kalardiya, and the cast were neighbours and relatives with no acting training, among them her cousin Bhanita Das in the lead.

The shoot stretched across nearly four years. The seed of the story came during post-production on Das's first film, Antardrishti, when she saw a group of children miming a song from the radio on imaginary instruments.

The film premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival in 2017 and then took the Swarna Kamal for Best Feature Film at the 65th National Film Awards, announced on 13 April 2018. It also won awards for Best Child Artist, Best Location Sound Recordist and Best Editing. India selected it as its official entry for the 91st Academy Awards, though it did not reach the shortlist of nine.

The Film Critics Circle of India named it Best Indian Film of 2017. Jurors praised its lyrical portrait of rural life, its quiet handling of gender norms and the natural presence of Bhanita Das, and several commentators saw it as a sign of the arrival of independent filmmaking in India.

Village Rockstars made Rima Das one of the most closely watched independent directors in the country and showed that a single person with a modest camera could carry a regional film to the world stage. It remains a touchstone for the idea of the one-person film crew in Indian cinema.